It’s Halloween – is dressing up questionable or just fine?

I have struggled with this for a few years now. Every Halloween, my workplace encourages employees to dress up. Innocent enough. My first year or two, I did dress up mostly because I was new (only explanation I can come up with). But the last couple years, I haven’t. This morning I sit here not dressed up because I have to wear a suit for an off-site meeting – and I’m glad I have this off-site meeting because it gives me an easy out.

Anyway, the issue for me is this: I’m in my early 30s (an optimist might say – a pessimist would say late 30s, and I suppose a truthful person would just say “I’m 35”) and I’m just not sure dressing up is OK anymore. When I consider this question, part of me feels like Scrooge or just a big poop when I conclude that it’s really lame and it’s childish behavior. The other part of me thinks it’s no big deal at all and that if people want to do it, why not just have fun with it.

One thing I have always wondered about is for those who do dress up, how do they decide what to wear? It is always kind of funny to see the quiet, unsuspecting person with an outrageous costume. And overall, I should add, that the people who tend to get really, really into this, in some ways, can be downright scary – though scary in a different way than Halloween fright. Some people get so excited about dressing up as someone else, it begs the question: do they prefer this character to their real self?

Anyway, it’s equally funny to me to see the people who are obviously conflicted about dressing up in the first place who barely wear a costume (like a doctor’s coat and a stethoscope or something lame like that). I imagine the thinking for these people might be that it’s better to wear something than to be one of those non-participating, stuffy people who don’t wear costumes…like me the last few years.

One factor that might change my thoughts re dressing up: Pabst. Actually, while I still champion Pabst, I must say that I haven’t been drinking it much lately – have Schlitz and High Life Light in the fridge presently. Anyway, I’d find wearing a costume a bit more understandable when alcohol is the beverage of choice rather than coffee because the coffee people drink during the day makes them talk a lot and then they talk even more about costumes in focused, uncomfortable conversations.

aaron – unless you are andy’s boss … the guy has a blog that posts just about every day, and we all spend time writing responses, and some of us even have our own blogs. i think the notion that the internet/necessity for computers at work desks combination is a dangerous one, and that worker productivity is a lost cause in today’s society – that’s not news.

we all have both ‘too much’ time, and ‘not enough time,’ depending on who’s making the judgment – our boss while we’re at work, or ourselves while we’re doing dishes and laundry all weekend. but in the end, we use it how we want to. when we stare off into space for 4 hours every day for a week straight, we can learn from that, and spend the next few months learning a language on audio cd’s during our commute (i’ve really been meaning to do that – anyone ever bought that Rosetta stone crap?). or asking our blog readers what they think about acting like batman for one day a year.

but back to batman. i’m a wimp when it comes to costumes, dancing in public, etc. but i certainly admire the stoic-ly ridiculous from time to time. contrasts in attitude and appearance have a hilarious effect, so i’m all for avoiding conversation/hype about halloween, and then showing up in something completely absurd – especially if you can have serious business-type conversations with co-workers dressed as a giant turd sandwich, or landshark from snl – all while keeping a straight face. i would say i’m dating myself with the landshark thing, but i have a feeling there aren’t many 16 year-olds reading this blog. they’re out trick-or-treating.

Halloween is a kiids holiday. Adult males who dress up are totally ridiculous. Now if your female counterparts want to dress up, especially as naughty nurses, Elvira, or the maid, that’s different. It’s good to be Old!
I can be as sexist as I want. All they say to me is, “Isn’t that old coot funny?”

Dressing up in a costume for work is not something that I am a fan of. Dressing up to say, go to a party downtown or at a friend’s house where that is the theme, I am fine with that.

In those instances (bar or party), I would say I enjoy seeing the creativity of what some come up with. Case in point, a picture from a friend 2 years ago with Darth Vader passed out on the stall at BBC downtown. File that one under things you don’t see every day.

Now, that doesn’t mean you are old, in the dirty sense of the word. Anyone over 17 is too old to dress up.

Now, if you want to dress down…. that is different. Wear pajamas, put an eye-patch on, maybe a funny hat…

Really anything that you can take off quickly and look like your normal self, or puts you in the process of having sex.

The point of Halloween, as an adult male, is to go to parties and see normal self respecting professional women dressed as total sluts. If you go overboard with the costume, you become part of the spectacle, instead of a spectator – which is what you want to be doing on Halloween, spectating.